In many transactions, authenticated information must be exchanged between the parties to the transaction. Traditionally, this is been accomplished by exchanging tangible paper documents that are been notarized, certified, signed or countersigned in accordance with a protocol agreeable to the parties. As increasing amounts of paper-based information is converted into a digital form, additional techniques have been devised to notarize, certify, sign, or indicate the authenticity of the digital information. However, difficulties arise in identifying a workable certification process that is both agreeable to all parties to the transaction and also technically feasible for the provider of the data. For example, the recipient of the data may require multiple certifications, notarizations, or signatures based on conflicting requirements imposed by different legal jurisdictions, governments, or regulatory processes. If an acceptable digital certification process cannot be determined, the parties may have to resort to a paper-based process that is both cumbersome and expensive. For at least this reason, providing certified digital data is an important problem.